Calgary MLS sales and prices rise from last year | Graphic

CALGARY - Calgary’s resale housing market continued to experience increased sales and prices in April compared with a year ago.

Statistics released by the Calgary Real Estate Board on Thursday indicate total MLS sales in the city rose by 7.07 per cent from last year to 2,545 units for the month. New listings were also up 8.03 per cent to 3,754 but active listings at the end of the month remained down 13.10 per cent to 3,794.

The average MLS sale price in April of $479,265 represented a 7.42 per cent hike from April 2013 while the median price of $429,000 was up 7.28 per cent.

While prices in April were higher than a year ago, they were slightly down from March when the housing market set several price records.

Ann-Marie Lurie, chief economist with CREB, said as the real estate market moves into the spring the number of listings tend to rise.

“And we did see that on all sectors,” she said. “In the condo market, we had already been seeing those listings increase. Now what we actually saw this month is that single-family listings have finally improved. So that was something that we were looking for . . . Even though single-family listings have been improving, they haven’t been improving at the lower ends of the market. We’re seeing listings improve really in that $500,000-plus market. So that tightness will likely continue in that lower segment of that single-family market.

“Another interesting thing that we’ve seen in April is that inventory levels for condo apartments have actually risen but not just for new listings but the level of actual inventory, the active listings, have risen above levels that we’ve seen last year. It’s unique to what’s happening in apartments. That’s still not the case in the single-family market or in the townhouse market. Both levels . . . are still significantly lower than what we saw last year.”

In April, the city’s single-family market saw sales increase from last year by 8.09 per cent to 1,736 transactions with the median price rising by 7.64 per cent to $484,250 and the average price up by 7.44 per cent to $547,871.

The condo apartment sector saw sales of 449 which was up 4.66 per cent. The median price rose by 10.76 per cent to $283,000 and the average price was up by 9.73 per cent to $319,696.

The condo townhouse sector experienced a 5.26 per cent hike in sales to 360 as the median price rose by 7.93 per cent to $320,000 and the average price was up by 1.92 per cent to $347,447.

The biggest year-over-year increases were in the towns surrounding the city. Sales of 582 increased by 35.03 per cent. The median price jumped by 12.39 per cent to $390,000 and the average sale price rose by 8.42 per cent to $396,022.

Lai Sing Louie, regional economist for the Prairies and Territories Region for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. in Calgary, said the city remains in seller’s market conditions.

“We’re expecting strong price growth,” he said. “We are experiencing strong, strong market conditions. We’ve had lots of people come to Calgary in the past year and that’s translating into more housing demand. Listings have been lower in the first part of this year and really there’s been more demand than supply in the marketplace and that’s causing prices to move higher.”

Don Campbell, senior analyst with the Real Estate Investment Network, said Calgary can be used as a case study for how housing markets perform.

“Last year we had near record net migration to the city and surrounding region as our economy grew and attracted young families and job seekers from across the country,” he said. “These new citizens obviously need a place to live. However, during this dramatic increase in population, we also had a next to zero vacancy rate and accelerating rental increases - a market situation that was exacerbated by last year’s floods and aggressive removal of a number of secondary rental suites from the market.

“This combination is now being felt in the resale marketplace at all levels of property values. We are seeing record strength in the luxury market while at the same time strong demand increases in the starter home and condo markets. Unlike some other cities in the country, this market performance is not being driven by speculation. It is pure economics.”

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